HOYLAKE, England – Tiger Woods stood on the third tee at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Thursday’s first round of the 143rd British Open with bogeys on his first two holes.

He was far from worried.

Despite playing his first major in 11 months and having just two competitive rounds under his belt in the last four months because of back surgery March 31, the former world No. 1 knew it wasn’t time to press.

His patience paid off as he stormed back with five birdies in six holes on the back nine under brilliant skies and fired a 3-under-par 69 to grab a piece of the front page of the leaderboard.

“I still had four par-5s to play. I still had a couple of the short holes,” said Woods, who is chasing his 15th major title and first since winning the 2008 U.S. Open. “I’m not going to be the only guy in a 72-hole event to make two bogeys. I just got mine out of the way early.

“ … I felt good about a lot of things I did out there today. Especially coming back after that start I had, to fight myself back into the championship.

“I feel pretty good about it.”

Woods, who won the Open here in 2006, also had a 15th club in his bag during the first round – his confidence.

Any doubt about his game and recovery from the back surgery was erased at Congressional Country Club two weeks ago when he missed the cut in the Quicken Loans Invitational.

“I’ve been telling you guys it was so important for me to play at Congressional,” Woods said. “The fact that I was able to recover every day, and the fact that I was stronger, more explosive the more days I played. I’m only going to get better from that point. And I’m getting stronger, I’m getting faster, I’m getting more explosive. The ball is starting to travel again.

“And those are all positive things.”

Woods ignited his round by making a birdie putt from off the green on the 11th hole. From there, he had a little extra pep in his step and followed with birdies from seven feet on the 12th, from 10 feet on the 13th, from 10 feet on the 15th and from an inch or two on the 16th.

“There was a clump of grass behind my ball and I put it back in my stance, picked [the putter] straight up and hit down on it. I was able to get through the grass there and it went on the green and went in,” Woods said of his putt on the 11th. “My next two approach shots to the green, whether it was the second shot at 12 or the tee shot at 13 were both hit with 6-irons, the same shot. So I just tried to hit exactly the same shot and I pulled it off twice.”

Woods, who hit his driver just once, that coming on the 16th hole where he found the fairway and made birdie, isn’t too worried about the impending storm heading toward Hoylake. There is a slight chance for thunderstorms and heavy winds on Friday, with a big storm in the forecast for Saturday

“With the forecast the next couple of days supposed to be iffy, guys aren’t going to go really low here,” Woods said. “We’re going to be bunched. It’s the type of golf course where the scores are going to be bunched. And you look at the scores, there’s a ton of players between 2- and 4-under par. And that’s kind of the way this championship, I think, is going to unfold.”

Following his scrum with the media, Woods headed to the driving range, another indication that his back is fine. As well, he played 50 holes in practice rounds here – the most he’s played at a major venue prior to the commencement of the tournament in years.

“I need to get everything a little bit better,” Woods said. “That’s the case all of time, anyways. But at Congressional I made just some terrible mistakes mentally. My decisions weren’t very crisp and I wasn’t decisive enough.

“Today was totally different. And consequently I shot a better score.”